Various Workshop Buildings Attached To East Side Of Front Block At Jackfield Tile Museum

Various workshop buildings attached to the east side of the front block at Jackfield Tile Museum

These are specific and combined-purpose workshop buildings, laid out circa 1874 by Charles Lynam for the Craven Dunnill Tile Company. They are constructed in plum-coloured brick with red brick dressings, and have tiled and corrugated sheet roofs.

The complex comprises several interconnected structures that collectively describe the industrial processes of 19th-century tile manufacture. The main element is a 2-storey, 20-bay range adjoining the east side of the front block under two roof levels. This housed the Tile Press Shop with mould makers and pattern makers shops on the upper floor, as well as the drying room and decoration workshops. The buildings feature segmentally-arched window openings, some with remains of wooden casements, chamfered brick details, and cogged eaves.

To the south is the Kiln House, a 1-storey building with a raised roof. It comprises three cells, each originally housing a kiln, with a single broader cell at the east end that has a lower roof. Each cell originally had a central door flanked by windows beneath segmental arches. The central cell now has a large opening inserted on the left of the former window and the stump of a later external chimney. The upper wall is of later date. Interior circular foundations of two downdraught kilns were inserted circa 1890.

At the east end of the Tile Press Shop is the Clay Arks, a 1-storey, 8-bay by 2-bay clay-storage building. Its south side has ten doorways, each with chamfered jambs and segmental arches, and cast-iron tie-rod plates. A later addition exists at the east end. The cogged eaves lead to a partially-stripped roof with wooden ridge vents and the remains of two boarded penthouses through which clay was barrowed into the left space via wooden bridges linked to the Blunging House. The rear elevation facing the road is heavily buttressed with blind windows. Internally, each doorway leads to a triangular lobby off which are two doors into clay storage bins known as Arks, each featuring flying buttressing and a boarded ceiling with hatch.

Attached to the south side of the Clay Arks by a wooden bridge is the Blunging House, a 3-storey, 4-bay building with additions to the rear and each side. It features doorways to bay 1 on the ground floor and to bays 1 and 3 on the first floor, a large opening to bay 3 on the ground floor, and segmentally-arched window openings, some with remains of wooden casements. The structure has cogged eaves. The first-floor doorways are now bricked up, though a surviving wooden bridge links to the roof of the Clay Arks. An outbuilding to the left houses a Lancashire boiler. Interior features include white-tiled walls and open-tread staircases.

The Tile Press Shop displays segmentally-arched doorways and windows at its taller east end, chamfered brick sills to later casements, and cogged eaves. The rear elevation facing the road has moulded brick sills to various casements, some of which are iron casements with glazing bars. Various ridge stacks and wooden ridge vents are present. The building retains painted signage in bold white letters reading "CRAVEN DUNNILL & CO LTD / JACKFIELD ENCAUSTIC & DECORATIVE TILE WORKS".

This is an important group of industrial buildings that, through their planned layout, describes the processes involved in 19th-century tile manufacture: the liquidation, filtration and drying of powdered clay; its storage in various arks according to colour; the pressing, inlay and decoration of tiles; and the biscuit and glost kiln firing required to maintain continuous production. The complex represents the best surviving example of the major tile works of this period. Tiles produced here were used by Alfred Waterhouse for Manchester Town Hall, as well as in ecclesiastical buildings such as Chester Cathedral and in public buildings and public houses, notably the Crown Hotel in Belfast, now a National Trust property, which represents the most opulent example of the application of these tiles.